PUCL condemns Hindutva attack on peaceful book-reading gathering in Ahmedabad
New Delhi: The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, has condemned an attack on a peaceful book-reading gathering in Ahmedabad, and said that a mob associated with Hindutva organizations, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), assaulted participants.
According to Kashmir Media Service, PUCL said around 45 to 50 men attacked nearly 50 students, young people and citizens who had gathered at AUDA Garden in Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, on August 27 for a silent reading session. It said four people sustained injuries requiring hospital treatment, while two women were also assaulted.
PUCL said the gathering was organised by the Student and Youth Collective, Ahmedabad, as a peaceful protest following a controversy involving two books, I Am Malala and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Participants were also reading books on figures including Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar.
As per complaints cited by PUCL, an armed group entered the garden around 6 pm carrying sticks, baseball bats and iron rods. Some of the attackers identified themselves as Bajrang Dal and VHP members, raised “Jai Shri Ram” slogans and called the readers “terrorists”. The mob also demanded that the clothes of some participants be pulled down to check whether they were Muslim.
PUCL said that several participants were beaten with sticks, baseball bats and other objects, with four people, including Jai Kumar Thakkar, Sneh Bhavsar, Shashi Kumar and Savan Zalariya, taken to hospital for treatment.
The organization also said that women at the gathering were targeted, saying Swati Goswami was grabbed by her arm and had her hair pulled, while Maitreyi Chhaya was slapped. Aadhya Chhatrola, who was recording the incident on her phone, was threatened with being “made to disappear” and an attacker attempted to snatch her phone.
PUCL said the violence continued even after police arrived and raised questions over the FIR registered by Vastrapur police, saying that it omitted key details cited in the complaints, including the involvement of Bajrang Dal and VHP members and demands to check participants’ religion.
The organization urged police to invoke additional provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and immediately secure CCTV footage from AUDA Garden and nearly locations.
“The right to sit in a public garden and read a book is sacrosanct,” PUCL Gujarat said, adding that the participants were attacked because of “the books in their hands and the religion the mob suspected they belonged to”.
